the varchie college chronicles (college au)

chapter 2

i woke up on thursday morning, the day after i moved in, to the sound of music playing from outside. i guess i had gotten lucky on my first night living here, but i wasn't so lucky on my first morning. i looked across the small dorm room to see betty still deeply asleep, and reached for my phone to check the time. 8 am. who is even awake at this ungodly hour?

i sighed and rolled my eyes before sitting up, and sliding my legs to dangle off of my lofted bed. i tried to slide off of it but ungracefully landed on the floor. i looked over at betty, wondering if i had woken her up, but she was still sleeping. i guess she had already gotten used to the loud noise that always came from across the hallway.

i quietly padded across the room, with my socks on, opened the door, and crossed the hall. i hesitated before knocking on the door.

no response. as i was reaching to knock again, the door swung open.

"good morning veronica." archie said, smirking at me. "finally coming to pay us a visit?"

"what are you doing up this early?" i asked, crossing my arms and glaring at him.

"we had to go to the gym for football at 6, so our day is already started." reggie called from inside. i peered around archie's body, and looked into their pigsty of a room.

"well can you guys at least turn down the music? just because you guys start your day early doesn't mean the rest of the floor does too." i said, trying to keep my voice steady. i didn't want to start a fight with them, choosing instead to be kind. and i smelled cinnamon rolls and kind of wanted one.

"only since you asked so nicely." archie said with a laugh. "wanna come in?"

"why not." i shrugged. "on one condition though. i'd like a cinnamon roll."

"deal." archie replied, and i followed him into his room.

i settled in onto the small couch that they had between their two beds, and grabbed a cinnamon roll from the box lying on reggie's bed.

"i'm loving the fit." reggie said jokingly, looking me up and down. he was definitely the douchey-er of the duo, i thought. i felt slightly self conscious of my attire- a yellow t-shirt with grey sweatpants and a braid that was falling apart- but decided that i didn't really care. back in new york, if i wasn't dressed in some fancy outfit, with my hair and makeup done, nick wouldn't even come near me, but these guys weren't pretentious pricks, they were just casual guys. it was a nice change.

"why can't you guys be like this to betty, cheryl, and toni? then they'd actually like you." i asked after a few minutes.

"because archie doesn't have the hots for them like he does for you." reggie said.

"reggie!" archie hissed, whacking him with his plastic plate.

i chose to ignore that comment. even though i had never tasted the flavor of redheads before, i was still getting over nick and didn't want to think about moving on yet. "be nice to them too, and see where that gets you guys. especially you with toni." i said to reggie.

"how do you know about toni?" he asked, looking surprised.

"how could i not?" i said, remembering his shameless teasing towards her in particular. "just so you know, rude comments are not the way to go when trying to make a girl pay attention to you."

"she catches on quickly." archie said, looking impressed, while reggie looked bashful.

"so be nice and see where that gets you." i said.

at that exact moment, i started getting text messages from betty cooper. "where are you?" she said.

"i'm actually hanging out with archie and reggie. i had a little talk with them and they're not gonna be douchebags anymore." i responded.

"hold up, i'm coming over." betty said, and right away she knocked on the door.

"betty!!" i smiled. "good morning!"

"i think the lack of noise woke me up. what happened?" betty said.

"ronnie asked us very nicely to turn it down, so how could we resist?" archie explained.

"ronnie?" betty and reggie said incredulously. my eyebrows shot up, but i chose not to say anything. i was not trying to get into a relationship, because i was still picking up the pieces from the train wreck of my last relationship. the only relationship i wanted is no strings attached, and archie already had strings attached.

"it's a nickname." archie said, turning slightly red. "just like reginald's nickname is reggie." he snickered.

"yeah and archie's real name is archibald." reggie said.

"you are really out here exposing each other." betty said with a laugh. "my real name is elizabeth."

"well unlike you, i haven't been so unfortunate to have been given a weird name, so i like veronica. but ronnie is fine too." i said.

cheryl and toni barged in after that, cheryl with her normal attitude, but i could see that she was at least trying to keep things civil.

after a little bit of chatting, and rekindling the friendship that had started but ended quickly before i had came to sweetwater river university, we all decided that we had stuff to do, and parted ways.

"guys, are you going to the party tonight?" cheryl asked. she had made herself right at home, helping herself to a cinnamon roll and a glass of orange juice.

"yeah, do you guys need a ride?" reggie asked.

"yes, we're not really down to uber. but someone needs to be designated driver." toni said.

"i'll do it. we have football tomorrow morning so we can't be hungover anyways." archie said.

"im going to get wasted tonight, it's been a while, and it'll be a while." i said. it would be a very fun night.

"jeez, where did this bold veronica come from? yesterday you were so shy." betty said, looking surprised.

"i decided that i'm not going to let stuff that happened back in new york hold me back." i said simply, offering no explanation, but leaving everybody wondering.

we finally all dispersed from archie and reggie's room, betty and i to go to the gym, and cheryl and toni to go grocery shopping for their dorm. we agreed to meet each other at 10 pm, intending to get the party at 10:30, wanting to not be there at the awkward beginning stage when everybody first started arriving.

a/n: hey!! chapter 2 is done! i know i know it's really short but i wanted to do a long one for the party next chapter. stuff is gonna start getting crazy then, but don't expect anything to happen between veronica and archie for a while.